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The Making of Asian Studies: Critical Perspectives
GS/GEOG 5700 3.0 / ANTH 5500 / CMCT 6536 / CMCT 6136 / HUMA 6135 / SOCI 6745)
The course offers a comprehensive and critical analysis of how Asian Studies as a field of investigation came to be constituted in distinct historical and regional contexts. Engaging critically with the current debates on area studies, the course examines how Asian spaces and identities have been produced historically, drawing on perspectives from across the social sciences and humanities. Instead of providing a substantive introduction to historical or contemporary processes of change in Asia, the course prepares students of Asia and Asian Diasporas to think carefully about how Asian spaces have been defined and deployed, how Asian identities have been constructed and connoted, and how different categories of analyses deployed for different regions. At a time, when there is considerable interest in Asia and its Diasporas, the course covers a range of readings from select classics to the more contemporary and addresses debates on orientalism, postcolonial critique, making of Asian studies, and regional specific topics such as subaltern studies.
Faculty members with expertise in Asian Studies and extended first-hand experience of research in different Asian countries offer the course each year. Any graduate student interested in Asia will find this unique and interdisciplinary course to be extremely valuable for their professional and scholarly development.
Who Can Take the Course?
This is the required core course for the Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies (GDAS).
All students currently pursuing or planning to conducting research in Asia or Asian diasporas are encouraged to take this one-of-a-kind course at York. Exposure to social theory is valuable but not necessary.
In 2012.2013
This course will be offered in the Winter term on Fridays from 11:30am to 2:30pm in N401 Ross.
To register for this course, please contact Yvonne Yim, Graduate Programme Administrator, Geography, at yvonney@yorku.ca or 416.736.2100 ext 55106.